Try This Now: Claypot Seafood Curry at Saigon Cafe

“Try This Now” is a weekly feature that puts the spotlight on one of downtown Jersey City’s best cocktails, entrees, or desserts.

Quiet and unassuming, it’s fairly easy to miss Saigon Cafe, but this family-run restaurant houses some of the best claypot dishes you’ll find on either side of the Hudson. Shown above is the restaurant’s signature seafood curry claypot. The orange-colored soup is robustly flavored with coconut milk and a variety of aromatics like chili, turmeric, garlic, and curry. It’s then cooked with shrimp, scallops, chunks of salmon, calamari, and mussels in a traditional pot made from red clay. The outcome is a soup that’s very rich and spicy without being overly heavy. It’s served with a side bowl of jasmine rice that you’ll want to use to sop up any leftover seafood broth. It’s the ultimate homemade comfort food for the seafood lover in search of something new.